RMG Factory Database
Upgradation hindered for owners’ non-cooperation
A move for correction and upgradation of the readymade garment sector database taken by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments is being hampered due to non-cooperation of the factory owners, sources close to the process told New Age.
They said DIFE officials, who found about 500 more garment factories that remained out of their list, had decided to include those in the database during the upgradation period.
The DIFE has recently taken an initiative for the correction and upgradation in the factory database that primarily created on March 31 with the initial information of about 3,500 garment factories.
After the creation of the database a controversy surfaced over the number of workers in the readymade garment sector as the DIFE database showed that 21.30 lakh employees were working in their listed 3,498 factories while the garment owners and other government agencies claimed that the number of workers was more than 40 lakh.
‘We have taken a move to update the primary database and requested the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to send information about their member factories but we did not get any response,’ Syed Ahmed, the inspector general of the DIFE, told New Age on Monday.
He said in view of no response from the owners the department had recently sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics requesting it to provide data on factories which the bureau had collected through a survey in 2013.
‘We are going to update the database based on the survey report of the BBS and the information collected by the DIFE officials,’ Syed said.
He said some of the factories, which are not the members of BGMEA and BKMEA, were trying not to be included in the database as the factories were doing business without proper licence.
The number of garment factories in the database is likely to reach to about 4,000 within a month as the department found about 500 more factories across the country and now the information of the factories remained under scrutiny, Syed said.
As per the requirements of the GSP action plan set by the US as well as the requirement of Sustainable Compact of EU, the government had created the database on March 31 this year for reporting labour, fire and building inspections as well as information on the factories and their locations.
The government had promised that the names and locations of the factories, number of workers and information related to trade unions would be included primarily in the database and more details of the factories would be included gradually.
-With New Age input
